DE LUXE THEATRE.

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 29, 3 August 1939, Page 15

DE LUXE THEATRE.

A Detective Farce,

"The Gang's All Here," a hilarious detective farce starring Jack Buchanan, opens tomorrow at the De Luxe Theatre. John Forrest, an investigator for an insurance company, has decided to retire in order to. write detective novels, and the firm gives him a farewell dinner from which he and his wife both wake in a somewhat chastened frame of mind. While at breakfast, John learns that the jewels he had deposited 'in the company's safe as his last job for them have been stolen. Immediately he feels that he i must follow up the matter, and from that moment plunges with his wife iinto a series of excitements which involve the royal owner of the.jewels and a band of croobks headed by Mike Chadwick, intent upon securing insurance money as. well as the jewels, which they dangle before the anguished owner prince's eyes. John, with the aid of Scotland Yard, is baulked in his search for the criminals by the refusal of one of Mike's henchmen to talk. John therefore decides to turn American and offer himself as "trigger" man in Alberni's place. This he succeeds in doing, receiving instructions to kill the prince on his visit to a night club, after first pretending to be a waiter. Everything falls^ out according to plan—only John's plan instead of Mike's plan—with the result that the prince gets back, his jewels, the insurance company its money, and Mike and his men are arrested. Once again John is given a celebration dinner and even as he again announces his retirement one of his men tells him of the discovery • of a headless body, and :again his retirement is postponed. Jack Buchanan is in his element as John Forrest, and is as (successful in his comedy scenes as he is with his impersonation of an American "trigger" man. His portrayal dominates the action, although it is followed very closely by that of Googie Withers as his long-suffering wife. Edward Everett Horton has a typical role as the Forresters' butler, Syd Walker is a convincing Cockney, and Otto Kruger gives another polished portrayal of the ambitious crook Mike Chadwick.. "Mystery House," starring Dick Purcell and Ann Sheridan, will be the second feature.